Morning Coffee - Feb. 12, 2025
Fuck Philly lol | Ingram inks 3yr / $120m deal | Rookies need good reps here on out
Quick Reaction: Raptors 106, 76ers 103 - Raptors Republic
I. Quickley - A
34 MIN, 23 PTS, 3 REB, 5 AST, 7-11 FG, 4-8 3FG, 5-5 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, 13 +/-
Quickley started off the night with some great playmaking and ended the first quarter with five straight points late in the final minutes when the 76ers were getting close to Toronto. Quickley started the second half with some huge shots, none bigger than his deep three midway through the third quarter. He’s missed a huge chunk of this season but it looks like he’s finally off the minutes restriction and has strung together two 20+ point outings consecutively.
Raptors youngsters get best of Embiid, underachieving 76ers - Sportsnet
It’s been that kind of year for the Sixers, who lost their fourth straight and six in their past seven to fall to 20-33 in a season where they were among the championship favourites.
The Raptors finished off their three-game road trip with their first win after four straight losses but will have an even tougher task at home Wednesday night against the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers in their last game before the All-Star break.
Still, the Raptors improved to 17-37 and can take pride in a win that was sprinkled with contributions from all corners of their roster as they played without two starters — Poeltl and RJ Barrett, who has been out with a concussion but has been cleared and is expected to play against the Cavaliers.
Ulrich may have finished with just one blocked shot and two missed field goals to show for his 12 minutes work, but the Raptors bench ignited when he got his hand on an Embiid lay-up and then in the tussle for the loose ball, flipped the seven-foot-one, 300-pound giant on his back.
At the top end of the roster, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley each played among their best individual games of the season and certainly their best game as a duo.
Barnes was a force, attacking the basketball relentlessly. After going 0-8 from three in a loss against Houston on Sunday (Barnes is shooting 26.6 per cent from three on the season with over six attempts a game) he made a point of getting to the rim and was rewarded. He shot 10-of-14 on two-point field goals (and was 1-of-2 from three) and was 12-of-15 from the free throw line, marking career highs for makes and attempts from the stripe.
In his post-game comments, Barnes attributed his determination to attack the paint to comments from The Raptors Show co-host Matt Bonner, where the 12-year NBA veteran criticized Barnes for settling for threes rather than pushing forward more.
“I just wanted to be aggressive going downhill, showing some burst and be able to just try to get past the defender,” he said. “I think (Monday) I was just going to ice, and I was watching Matt Bonner. He was talking about something (on his podcast), talking about how I can't go to the rim, how I can't get past people. So I think that kind of motivated me a little bit as well. I was trying to get to the rim, be able to use my burst of speed, getting to the rim, getting fouled, getting free layups. Felt great today.”
Hey, whatever it takes.
Takeaways For Toronto as Raptors Pull Shocking Upset over 76ers - Sports Illustrated
Immanuel Quickley is here to stay.
That shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering Toronto signed the 25-year-old to a long-term deal last summer. But with injuries limiting him this season, frustration has started to build. At times, it feels like Quickley has become a scapegoat for how poorly things have gone.
Injuries have been an issue, but when he’s on the court, he brings something special.
His pull-up three-point shooting adds an element to Toronto’s offense that has been sorely lacking. He showcased that ability in the third quarter, dribbling around a handoff from Jonathan Mogbo to create an advantage before quickly changing direction and drilling a pull-up three.
As a playmaker, he remains Toronto’s best option as a traditional point guard. Early in the game, he penetrated the paint, elevated, and found Ochai Agbaji open in the corner for a three.
Quickley’s presence also takes pressure off Scottie Barnes, allowing him to focus on what he does best—getting downhill, attacking the paint, and finishing at the rim. That was on full display Tuesday, as Barnes stayed aggressive without settling for ill-advised jumpers or forced three-pointers. He punished the 76ers inside, finishing with 33 points, including 12-for-15 from the free throw line, while Quickley provided spacing and kept the defense honest.
When Toronto needed a bucket late, Barnes went right at Embiid in isolation, floating in a tough shot over the former MVP. Moments later, Quickley followed by drawing a foul as he challenged Embiid inside.
That proved to be enough.
Embiid passed up an open three-pointer in the final minute before fumbling the ball on a drive to the hoop, drawing boos from the Philadelphia crowd.
Quickley finished with 23 points, a game-high plus-23, and four three-pointers in 34 minutes—his highest playing time of the season.
Raptors Notebook: Where things stand after Ingram, Battle contracts - Sportsnet
Where things stand for the rest of 2024-25
The Raptors have $1.36 million left beneath the tax for this year and currently have an open roster spot.
That $1.36 million is more than enough for a rest-of-season signing or to try out a few different players on 10-day contracts before making a decision. Like with Battle, if they decide they like someone by the end of the year, there should still be room to give them a multi-year deal.
That number beneath the tax could also expand if they negotiate a buyout with PJ Tucker, who will not be reporting to the team. For Toronto, there’s not an immediate need for the roster spot, so they can play a bit of a game of chicken waiting to see if Tucker will leave money on the table to join another team. For Tucker, until that situation arises, he’s being paid — with money Miami gave Toronto in the trade — to stay home.
Orlando Robinson signing a two-way contract doesn’t have much effect here, and it’s only a rest-of-season two-way. He will have 19 days available to him to be on the active NBA roster, the prorated amount of the usual 50 days for the season.
As an aside, if the Raptors stay at 14 players on the roster instead of 15, their two-way days as a team will be capped. They’re at least a few weeks from that coming into play, and they can resolve it by filling their final roster spot.
Where things stand for this summer
With Ingram on the books at $38.1 million and Battle at $2.0 million, we have even greater clarity for the summer ahead.
The Raptors have $177.3 million committed to 11 players, with the luxury tax projected to land at $187.9 million
That means they’d have $10.6 million for their first-round pick plus the final three roster spots. The No. 5 overall pick will earn an estimated $9.1 million; the No. 1 pick will earn $13.8 million. A second-round pick (from Portland) will likely be another minimum contract, but the team might want Chris Boucher to stick around, too, or explore free agency using the bi-annual exception or, if they’re deeper into the tax, the taxpayer mid-level exception.
All of this is to say, it’s going to get very tight. The Raptors can just spend into the luxury tax, and things get easier. They can also stay above the luxury tax to start the year and make moves at the deadline to get beneath it, once they’ve seen how the pieces fit together. Whatever they decide, Ingram’s deal provides salary certainty and also the certainty that if they want to stay beneath the tax, there will be some tough decisions to be made.
We’ll take a closer look at those scenarios in June.
Brandon Ingram, Raptors agree to 3-year, $120 million contract extension - The Athletic
“He’s young. He’s entering his prime. By no means is he … a finished product,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said of Ingram, who turns 28 in September. “I think we’re expecting a spark as far as a fresh start for him. He’d been into New Orleans for a while, and I think there’s (been) a string of bad luck due to (injuries) down there. So (we are) excited to see what he can do with us.”
Before the ankle sprain, Ingram missed time with calf soreness earlier this season. He missed significant time in each of his seasons with New Orleans due to lower-body injuries, including a bone contusion in his left knee last season and a sprained toe that cost him 29 games in 2022-23.
The move means the Raptors are committed to their projected starting five of Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl through 2026-27 (Poeltl has a player option for that final season). Depending on how the Raptors structure Ingram’s deal, the team will owe about $177 million to 10 players next year. A team must have at least 14 players on its roster, and the Raptors will likely be adding a high-to-mid lottery pick, as they enter Tuesday night’s game at Philadelphia with a record of 16-37.
The luxury-tax threshold for next season is projected at 187.9 million. The Raptors might need to move a player to stay under the tax, which has historically been an organizational priority when they haven’t been contenders.
Ingram is averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in 18 contests this season. There is no timetable for his return to play.
Why betting $120 million on Brandon Ingram makes sense for the Raptors - Toronto Star
What the deal is, at its heart, is a bet on the future and another piece in the fold for a few years. It’s a message: We’ll keep adding when we can here and there and let’s see how this works.
The implications of the Ingram contract are simple, and have been expected since he was acquired a week ago from the New Orleans Pelicans — for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and draft picks. They see him fitting in with Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl. It will be up to coach Darko Rajakovic to make it work on the court, and it’s not impossible.
There is some duplication — Barnes, Barrett and Ingram have a lot of similarities — but a creative coach should be able to work through it, and Rajakovic and his staff have a bit of this season and all summer to figure it out.
If they can’t, there are remedial methods at their disposal.
Barrett’s contract is movable, but there’s no reason to think it will be.
Poeltl’s contract could expire next year (he’s got a player option) and might be in play.
And if the Ingram deal makes it too hard to re-sign free agent Chris Boucher in the summer, well, that’d be too bad, because Boucher’s beloved. But given they looked hard to deal him last week, it’s fair to assume they feel they can live with his absence.
Everything done over the past week — dismissing veterans Brown, Olynyk and Davion Mitchell while freeing up minutes for young players and obtaining a still-in-his-prime Ingram — was with an eye for the future.
Obtaining Ingram accelerated it. Giving him a new deal was inevitable. And not one bit of it can be seen as wrong.
The Raptors are still going to have a chance at some lottery luck. Ingram or no Ingram, the way the league’s shaping up the Raptors will be in the bottom third and have reasonable odds to move up.
But what they have now is another bona fide NBA talent locked up for the foreseeable future.
What each Raptors rookie needs to work on as playing time increases after NBA trade deadline - Toronto Star
Shead needs to learn how to orchestrate an NBA offence; Walter has to learn to face top-level defenders every night; Mogbo needs to become an NBA wing after playing as a big in his college career; and Battle is a shooter who needs to expand his game and become a better, more attentive defender.
All of their teammates see potential but also know there’s much work to do. The veterans must figure out how to best teach the rookies.
“There’s different ways different people learn,” Immanuel Quickley said. “Some people respond to tough love and others respond better when you put your arm around them. Just trying to find a balance of those.”
The most intriguing and most important to the team’s future is Shead. The Raptors have enough wings to allow Walter, Mogbo and Battle to grow at their pace, but Shead is the lone point guard on the roster behind Quickley and that puts pressure on him to get up to speed.
Rajakovic already has a laundry list of things to watch closely and work on in the off-season when there’s a real chance to drill down on development. In the season? He needs Shead to get comfortable taking control.
“Even (though) he’s a rookie with us, he’s still our point guard and he needs to be able to use his voice to get guys in the huddle, get them organized, communicate with them, and to feel comfortable doing that at the NBA level with NBA guys,” the coach said.
The list of needs for each will surely grow when Rajakovic gets to watch them closely in real games. Then the real teaching can begin.
“We are finding now what we need to concentrate on later,” the coach said. “That’s very important.”
NBA Power Rankings: How good are the Lakers? And a roster reset for all 30 teams - The Athletic
This week: 26
Last week: 25
In the last week: L vs. NY, L vs. MEM, L at OKC, L at HOU
Offensive rating: 110.1 (24th)
Defensive rating: 115.8 (26th)
Roster reset: SF Brandon Ingram
The Raptors are very interesting to me. When January 2024 started, they were in between the OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam trades. That meant Toronto starting lineups featuring Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Siakam and Jakob Poeltl during a particularly difficult stretch of their season. Since then, they have flipped Siakam for Ingram, both with the help of Bruce Brown’s championship contract. I can see the Raptors trying to slot Ingram into Siakam’s old spot and let Barnes be a head-of-snake playmaker for a pass-heavy offense. But also, Ingram is injured and in a contract year with the Raptors 21 wins under .500. There’s a chance we never see this group get extended run this season.
NBA Power Rankings: Where All 30 Teams Stand After the 2025 Trade Deadline - Bleacher Report
25. Toronto Raptors (16-35)
Previous Rank: 25
Net Rating: -5.6
It's tough to follow the logic of the Toronto Raptors' moves this deadline week.
Instead of leaning into a rebuild, chasing losses and improving their 2025 lottery odds, the way-below-.500 Raptors gave up draft capital to add Brandon Ingram, whose skill set is redundant with Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett and who enters free agency this summer.
Ultimately, they pivoted out of Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Barnes and Fred VanVleet to Barnes, Ingram, Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.
It's hard to see how the current core is anything but a slightly worse version of the old one. And instead of winding up with a future star from the 2025 draft (which is still possible), fans might have to deal with a few more years of mediocrity.